i woke up an hour early

When I was about 5 years old I was in kindergarten, as most 5 year olds are. I don't know what the kids in kindergarten watch today (Pingo? is that too young for kindergarten?) but when I was there, we watched the Letter People. Most people liked a letter that their first name began with or, at least, their last name. Now, let me tell you a fact. Miss A kind of blows. I mean that literally and figuratively (and when you watch the video, you'll see why). What is up with her huge mouth? Mr. L was just WEAK. Orange hair, soft falsetto... why would anyone like Mr. L? I know *I* didn't.

I liked Mr. S.

Mr. S is a superhero. Mr. S has an AWESOME song. He shows real emotions in that song. That bass part is seriously cool and the whole song is funky as hell.

I remember some kid in kindergarten (although I honestly couldn't tell you who) was like "Alisa is IN LOVE with Mr. S!" I was so embarrassed. I obviously wasn't in love with Mr. S. He's a puppet. Even at 5 years old, you're not going to fall in love with a puppet. I just really liked the song. That song, as I said, is seriously cool. It's obvious to me now that whoever that kid was, besides clearly being jealous of my assumed love of Mr. S, just wasn't cool.

I think the "S" thing stayed with me, though. Look over to the right. It says, "I love Shakespeare, Sondheim and rock and roll." That love clearly started with Mr. S. First of all, two out of three of those things start with the letter S. The other one is directly related to Mr. S because his song IS rock and roll. Mr. S also rhymes a lot (like SHAKESPEARE!!) and he writes original lyrics that shouldn't make sense but do (like SONDHEIM!!). Mr. S is the epitome of those three things.

Another thing I love is the real Mr. S, Chris Seiler. He does not have super-sonic socks. He will not fly around with some weird background and have his close up match the trumpet part. He will be nice to you all the time. He will love you unconditionally. Even though he is a comedian, he will play your "straight man" so that you can pull off your "Alisa character." He will look at you like you're the greatest thing on earth even when all you've been doing for the last hour is gossiping.

Maybe he won't do these things to YOU... but he will to me.

And after all that, I'm not changing my name. I'm the only Alisa Ledyard in the entire world. I can't give that up. There already is an Alisa Seiler. She can keep it. She's got two COOL names. I always figured that I would change it... but after I found out I'd be one of two, I just couldn't do it. You never really realize how much your name really means to you until you're thinking about changing it. (Incidentally, in 4th grade my parents gave me permission to change my name to plain old "Lisa." Every day since the first day of preschool, my name has been mispronounced by anyone trying to say it for the first time. I was sick of it. They gave me permission and said if I really wanted to, I could. I could finally be... plain old Lisa. No way, Jose. That is why I get so irritated when people mispronounce my name.)

So, I am staying Alisa Ledyard (change the cards! It hasn't changed in 26 years, don't get it wrong now!). I have to keep Miss A and Mr. L as my Letter People characters... but I can also secretly still love Mr. S and his ability to rock.